


Nothing (Everything) Had Changed

by onereyofstarlight



Series: FAB Five Feb [4]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Family, Gen, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:49:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24126154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onereyofstarlight/pseuds/onereyofstarlight
Summary: Virgil and Jeff have a late night talk, soon after Jeff's return to Earth.
Series: FAB Five Feb [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663633
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	Nothing (Everything) Had Changed

Small things built into large things. Virgil had seen it many times before.

A single brick, laid down over and over again, could build a city.

A single note, resonant before a hushed audience, could transform into a symphony.

A brushstroke, surrounded by an empty canvas, could grow into a masterpiece admired around the world.

A single answer to a cry for help could save a life.

A single life saved could develop into a global rescue organisation and an obsession with kindness and service to others could develop with it.

Small things built into large things and that was how the world worked. Virgil adjusted to the minute changes in his life and so he was never surprised at the realisation of organic growth that occurred.

But not all change happened slowly.

An avalanche.

An explosion.

A submarine torn to shreds.

And yesterday.

Yesterday, they travelled over a lightyear, there and back again, to the far reaches of the Solar System and retrieved a man Virgil knew instinctively. He should have grown, in small, minute ways that added up over the last eight years to form a new man sitting before them.

But Jeff Tracy still looked like their Dad, still acted like their Dad, smiling and laughing and loving as though the whole ordeal was the result of a mere joyride. As though nothing had changed.

Virgil was wary of the man Scott had brought home with them. He was too similar to the man whom they had grieved. He was a living ghost in their home.

It was 1 a.m. and the house was silent as Virgil walked through the halls. He knew he wasn’t the only one awake, could even see the light spilling out from Scott’s room. He resisted the urge to check in on him. He wouldn’t need to do that anymore, not like he used to. Another change.

The night was humid and the floorboards creaked as he walked across to the balcony, where a lone figure with a familiar silhouette was framed by the night sky.

“Hey,” came the whispered acknowledgement of his presence. “How’re you doing, kid?”

“I’m not a kid,” he mumbled, pulling up a chair to sit beside his father.

A sad smile flitted across Jeff’s face.

“No, I suppose you’re not.”

They sat together in silence, drinking in moonlight and the rhythmic crash of the waves below.

Virgil had never felt tongue-tied around his father before. His father had never come back from the dead before.

“How are you coping?” asked Jeff finally. “This must be a big adjustment for you.”

Virgil’s throat closed up and he swallowed back the tears. Eight years and his Dad really was exactly as he remembered him. It didn’t feel real.

“I’m fine,” he said, chest hitching a little as he spoke.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” he said quietly, confused and unsure of the truth in his statement.

“Oh, yes I have,” said Jeff quietly. He looked out at the stars above them. “Never understood how people could use the stars to tell stories before. Never really understood the point of stories at all neither. I do now.”

Virgil stayed quiet. Once upon a time he might have felt a flicker of triumph at the words, the battle between his father and him on the importance of music and art and _stories_ was an old one. What his Dad had always shrugged off as hobbies, Virgil had known were what was keeping him alive in the cold, dark days following his mother’s death. Virgil didn’t like to think that this was something his father and him now had in common.

“They look almost the same,” Jeff mused aloud, eyes roaming the familiar patterns. “No Lucy though, she’ll be up in the morning.”

Virgil felt uncomfortable for a moment. This was John’s territory – or Alan’s – and he didn’t like to think he was taking away something precious from them.

“The stories I told myself,” he said, still lost in his thoughts. “They’re written in the stars forever now. I’ll tell them to you someday, and you can tell me which ones are real and which ones I made up.”

“I’d like to hear them Dad,” said Virgil, softly.

“Well, we can trade,” said Jeff jovially, and just like that he was a man unchanged once more, a father who could have stepped right out of Virgil’s memory.

Virgil said nothing, drinking in the sight of his father’s smile. There were cracks he could see, now that he knew what to look for. As he watched, the light behind his Dad’s eyes shifted as he sighed.

“You always saw a little too much, Virgil,” he said, gruffly.

“Will you be okay?”

“I will. I’ve got your Grandma and I’ve got you boys.”

“Will we be enough?”

“You’ve _done_ enough, kid,” said Jeff firmly, and Virgil straightened in his seat as he heard the commanding tone, still familiar after all those years. “The rest is not for you to worry about. Just let me be your father, nothing more, nothing less.”

Eight years with Scott, with John, with Gordon and Alan, means his instincts are screaming at him to not let this go, to check in with his father, to find out what was wrong and to do his damnedest to fix it.

After all, he’s changed too.

But for tonight, he could meet his Dad where he is.

For tonight, he could pretend that nothing had changed.

“Love you, Dad.”

He captured his Dad in a tight hug, hands curling around familiar shoulders and nose buried in a scent that pulled him back into the past and sighed.

Nothing had changed.

He could almost believe it.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the FAB Five Feb challenge on tumblr by @Gumnut  
> Prompt used was "yesterday"  
> Cross posted from Tumblr, orginally posted on 23/02/2020
> 
> Yeah I did two fics for Virgil in the end ahaha.... Thank you for reading!!


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